Food product and process of producing same.



F. C. ATKINSON.

FOOD PRODUCT AND PROCESS OF PRODUCING SAME.

APPLICATION FILED FEBAH. 1912.

1 fifi$ 59 1 w Patented Apr. 30, 1918.

FREDERICK G. ATKINSON, 0F INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

FOOD PRODUCT AND PROCESS OF PRODUCING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 3d, 191%.

Application filed February 19, 1917. Serial No. 149,659.

To all whom it may 00mm:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK C. ATKIN- SON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, Marion county, and State of Indiana, have invented and discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Food Products and Processes of, Producing Same, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to food products and processes of preparing the same and its object is to produce a product which shall be palatable and which may be rapidly and cheaply produced in such form as may be broken into small crisp pieces capable of being readily packed into cartons or boxes.

lVith these objects in view, my invention consists of the product and the process of preparing the same hereinafter described.

Various forms of apparatus which may be used in carrying out the process are illus trated in the accompanying drawings. In these drawings, Figure 1 is a side diagrammatic view of a machine adapted to employ heated rollers for forming and toasting the product and a dipping trough containing the paste consisting of the cereal products or products and liquid; Fig. 2, a sectional view of the arrangement shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a side diagrammatic view of an apparatus employing a toasting chain or belt in lieu of one set of rollers used in Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a similar view of another form of apparatus showing a belt difierently arranged, Fig. 5, a side view of a device consisting of hinged plates for forming the sheets of material; and Fig. 6, a plan view of the plates shown in Fig. 5.

The product consists of a thin sheet of a crisply toasted composition of vegetable meal and water, or other liquid such as milk. The process consists in feeding a comparatively thin layer of the paste, formed of such meal and liquid, between heated metallic surfaces of a temperature sutficient to crisply toast the body throughout its mass. The sheet thus formed may be broken up during the process of preparaand to the device shown in Figs. 1 and 52, 1 indicates a trough or a similar receptacle adapted to contain a paste consisting of uncooked corn meal, or other meal of a non-glutinous consistency, or a mixture of such a meal with other ground cereal or leguminous products and water or milk of such consistency that the particles will cohere and will adhere to a metallic surface. Mounted above this trough and adapted to dip into the same so as to be coated with the paste in its revolution and carry the same along with it is a large heated cylinder or roll 2 preferably heated by steam admitted to the interior thereof. Disposed opposite to this roll and spaced the desired distance therefrom to form a sheet of material of the required thickness are rolls 3 and i, which are also heated and which, together with the main large roll. 2 are adapted to be positively driven by a suitable mechanism, such as gears. The rolls are heated to such a temperature as to toast the paste entirely throughout the same, the sheet being of such a thickness relative to this temperature as to permit the penetration of the heat through its body. As the large roll dips into the trough'it will be coated with the material and will carry the same up against the small rolls 3 and 4:, which will press the paste fiat against the main roll and reduce the same to a sheet and at the same time the heated surfaces of the rolls will toast the paste throughout and the same will be carried up over the large roll in the form of a crisp toasted sheet which may be broken into smaller blocks or fragments after the step of forming the same or which may be indented into squares or ridges on the upper smaller roller adapted to score the sheet.

In Fig. 3 an arrangement is shown in which 5 is the dipping trough and 6 a large heated toasting and feeding roller. Adapted to cooperate with this roller is an endless metal chain 7, driven by sprocket wheels 8 and passing through a furnace 9, whereby the chain is heated to a toasting temperature. This chain is spaced slightly from the roller 6 and is adapted to serve as the complementary toasting member thereto.

In Fig. 4, an arrangement is shown in which a lar e drum 10 is employed as a driving mem er and in which one of the toasting members is provided by means of an endless metallic belt 11 adapted to pass compressed into aflat sheet and by which it is toasted and the belt then carries the toasted sheet back over the large drum and .rearwardly to a point. of delivery. This belt also passes through a heating furnace.

V In Figs. 5 and 6, a compressing and toasting device 1s shown consisting oftwo flat hinged plates 15 and 16, which are spaced apart a suflicient distance to form'a sheet of the desired. thickness by means of corner lugs 17 on one of the plates. These plates .are heated to a sufficient temperature to toast the thin sheet. In this arrangement the material must be fed in between the plates by hand and removed from the plates by means of a scraper after it has. been toasted.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is;

1. A food product consisting of a compressed, toasted paste of a ground vegetablev meal of a non-glutinous consistency and an aqueous liquid.

7 2. A food product consisting of a mixture of corn meal and an aqueous liquid compressed, and toasted throughout.

3. .A food product consisting of a nonglutinous cereal meal, a liquid, seasoning ingredients and a fat incorporated with the mixture, the product being in compressed form, toasted to browning throughout.

4. A food product conslstlng of corn meal and a liquid in a flat sheet-like condition toasted to browning.

5. The process which consists in compressing a paste of a vegetable meal and an aqueous liquid to cohere the same into sheets and at the same time toastin the same to brownness to produce a crispibrittle article.

6. The process of producing a food prodnot which consists in mixing corn meal and an aqueous liquid and feeding the paste thus formed between bodies spaced apart a slight distance and sul'liciently close together to compress the paste and form a sheet thereof, and heating said bodies to a temperature sufficient to toast the sheet throughout.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal at Indianapolis, Marion county, Indiana, this 25th day of January, A. D. nineteen hundred and seventeen.

FREDERICK c. ATKINSON. [as] MAUD CASTETTER.

Games of thia patent may be obtained for'five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. G. 

